Profit "booster shot"! He Sai revenue set the history of lidar industry again, and sit firmly in the global sales crown

On May 23 ET, global lidar leader Hesai Technology reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023. The results showed that the company's net revenue for the quarter reached a record high of RMB429 million (US $62.6 million), up 73.0 percent year-on-year and 5.1 percent quarter-on-quarter. The financial results of the answer sheet, for the lidar market again injected a shot in the arm!

(Photo: Hesai Technology Financial Report)

Meanwhile, revenue from its products grew even faster, up 77.7 per cent year-on-year and 4.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rmb424m ($61.8m).

In terms of net profit, the adjusted net profit and operating cash flow of the company in the first quarter turned positive, and the cash reserve reached 3.14 billion yuan, which officially realized profit. Hesai also became the first listed Lidar company to realize profit!

Gross margin increased to 37.8% in the first quarter, up 7.8% sequentially.

Single-handedly, he fully proved that lidar can be a profitable "business", and further sit on the car lidar global "sales" position. No problem: Cows!

Lidar deliveries have soared

The total shipment of lidar in the first quarter of 2023 was 34,834 units, up 402.9% year on year. Of these, 28,195 ADAS lidar units were shipped this season, compared with 222 units in the same period in 2022.

Since its establishment, Hesai has delivered 135,000 lidar units in total. This quarter, its delivery quantity again exceeded the other 7 foreign lidar listed companies combined, become the undisputed global "sales crown"!

Top Review: 'Record Highs' and 'A Year of Transformation'

"We are pleased to have delivered the strongest quarterly financial results in our company's history, delivering record net income, non-GAAP profitability and positive cash flow from operations. This quarter, not only did we launch our breakthrough, ultra-thin in-car lidar ET25, but we also formed new partnerships, expanded our multi-year ADAS contract relationship with OEM customers, and signed the largest Robotaxi lidar contract in company history, "he said. Li Yifan, co-founder and CEO of Hesai, said, "2023 will be a year of transformation where we will see increased interest and cooperation from leading Oems in North America and Europe. While we still reported a GAAP net loss for the quarter, looking ahead, we will continue to leverage our strong in-house manufacturing capabilities and proprietary ASIC platform to build high-quality, affordable lidar that will bring an even higher level of safety to the intelligent driving systems of the future."

Mr Hsieh, global chief Financial Officer of Hesai, added: "With our relentless efforts to improve revenue scalability and cost efficiency, we achieved profitability in the quarter through record net income and positive operating cash flow. Lidar shipments in the quarter increased fivefold from a year earlier to more than 34,800 units, bringing the total number of units shipped to more than 135,000. Although we typically experience a slowdown in demand in the first half of the year due to seasonal factors including the Chinese New Year holiday, we expect demand for autonomous driving and ADAS products to accelerate in the second quarter of 2023, with deliveries expected to increase by approximately 40% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, which would be an all-time high for Hesai's lidar quarterly production. This strong order momentum is a strong testament to our global leadership position in the ADAS and autonomous mobile Lidar markets. We continue to handily outperform our competitors, with quarterly revenue and lidar shipments exceeding those of the other six U.S.-listed lidar peers combined!"

Key business progress highlights

- Autopilot: Hesai signed the largest Robotaxi lidar contract in company history.

- ADAS: New targets in the first quarter include the Ideal Car pure level platform new models, the convergence car new models, and SERES and other new models. Up to now, Hesai has been appointed by 11 mainstream Oems for mass production, of which 6 will start mass production and delivery before the end of 2023.

- Herse completed the first successful production sample AT the "Hertz" Center in Hangzhou, a dedicated in-house manufacturing facility that supports the company's AT series Lidar products with a more than 90% automated production line and a lidar cycle time of only 45 seconds per lidar. Also scheduled for completion in the third quarter of this year is Maxwell, the company's advanced research and development and intelligent manufacturing center in Shanghai, where He will design, test and calibrate new products. With an annual capacity of one million units, He will have a strong scale production capacity at the vehicle scale.

- Officially unveiled a groundbreaking in-cabin lidar "ET25" at the Shanghai Auto Show. The ET25 has an extremely thin profile of just 25 mm in height, with greater range and higher resolution. In cooperation with Fuyao Group, a global leader in automotive glass, He Saida has created a special windshield that can increase the laser transmission efficiency by up to three times, achieving a mass-productable integrated design for lidar mounted in the cabin.

In the first quarter of 2023, compared with other 7 lidar competitors, Hesai Technology's performance can be described as a clean sweep in terms of revenue, profit, cash flow, etc., and it is in an overall leading position. In terms of revenue, He Sai is 1.6 times that of the other seven peers combined.

At present, the Q1 revenue of the other 7 listed lidar companies that have disclosed financial results in 2023 is respectively: Ouster ($17.23 million, up 101%), Luminar ($14.5 million, up 112%), Cepton ($1.49 million), Aeva ($1.15 million, Flat year over year), Innoviz ($1.01 million), MicroVision ($800,000) and AEye ($640,000).

Core growth capacity and breakthrough

It is worth mentioning that Hesai continues to increase the investment in research and development, with the strong advantages of lidar special chip research and development and manufacturing process, constantly improve the performance limit of the next generation of Lidar products, and constantly consolidate its self-built production line, which has laid a strong foundation for subsequent development. Statistics show that its R&D investment in 2022 reached 560 million yuan, up 50.7 percent year on year.

In the aspect of globalization, Hesai technology is also continuing to vigorously promote. The company has been favored by many Oems in North America and Europe, and has the opportunity to usher in explosive growth in the global market in the future. According to the official website of Hesai Technology, the company's business has covered more than 40 countries and more than 90 cities around the world. Since its inception with an office in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto), He Sai has adhered to a global strategy for many years. On May 11, Hesai announced that its European office in Stuttgart, Germany, the "car capital" of Europe, has been officially opened, which will help Hesai to further expand the European market.

Source: OFweek